Kaui
Home Up Maui Kaui

 

Hawaii - December 2003

Kauai

Click on the images to see them enlarged.

Images will open in a new window, so just close it to return to this page.

Our second stop in Hawaii was the island of Kauai - the Garden Island . Unfortunately, it was raining on most days, which limited our anticipated activities. We had planned a helicopter trip and a waterfall hike/lunch, but those had to be cancelled due to the rainy weather. But the hotel - the Kauai Marriott - provided some relaxing shelter from the elements.

But despite the weather, we were still able to do a lot of things on Kauai. One of our first excursion was to Waimea Canyon - the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. On the way there, we were treated with interesting views of the Kauai coast line . After driving up the steep and winding road to the Canyon we arrived at the first lookout point , and saw an amazing landscape and scenery . We continued the drive past some smaller, but nevertheless interesting, waterfalls and arrived at a lookout over the Na'Pali coast - the northwest coast of Hawaii, which is inaccessible from a road, and can only be visited by boat, hiking trails or helicopter. It was a truly spectacular view - rainbow included .

On the way to one of our dinner locations (The Beach House), we passed through Kauai's tree tunnel . Afterwards, we visited Kauai's Spouting Horn , which is formed by a hole in the lava rock where water shoots through and emerges in large spouts that also make sounds like a horn (hence the name). It was much larger than the one we found in Maui, and therefore access to it was not possible. After watching the forces of nature, we continued to our dinner , which also included a spectacular sunset .

The next day, we went on our mission to try to get to everyone of Kauai's waterfalls. We started out with an easy hike by a small stream , which led to a nice and secluded waterfall . Unfortunately, the rain had resulted in high water levels, and the waterfall was inaccessible. The next attempt was to get closer to the Waimea Falls (well known to the viewers of the former TV show "Fantasy Island"). But a less-than-friendly local prevented us from getting any closer.

For New Years Eve we had a fun dinner planned on the North side of Kauai. On the way there, we drove by the Waimea River lookout , and visited the local lighthouse, which offered great views of the coast and provides a home to a rare species of geese . But the real event of the evening was our dinner on the beach. A local caterer provides an all-inclusive menu and tables , candles and other romantic accessories for the dinner on the beach. As you can tell, this was very exciting and made (both of) us very happy . The evening and vacation ended with a romantic fire - resulting in a wish to come back in the future.